~ A Daily Rendevouz...~

Its his everyday feature and that he has been doing this since long , may be decades – ask him this question as to why he does this and his quirky answer is “ Its bliss…” , many of us wont follow his meaning of this as we have not reached a level of understanding what universe is all about, but certainly not him.

His reticence is broken when he talks with his favorite everyday friends, the pigeons and crows throng him when he visits them everyday at a particular spot he has chosen to give them their daily meal of millets – the birds ( though very few of them in Delhi now) and the pigeons love it whilst they cherish their daily succour, for the crows it is an overnight bread or other sundry home leftovers.

The sight is just worth watching, the man, in his mid-60’s has formed a formidable friendship with his morning friends, the chirping and the caws of the crow is an admission that they are happy too while enjoying the company of him.

Shubash is his name as his friends call him  and he is alone in this world, he is a bachelor and never married – he retired from a government school and since then is living happily in his solitude as he has made some retired fellows as his friends to talk. Much of his time, he spends in the park co-cooing with his friends and birds and crows. The dogs love him as well as he brings for them their daily meal of milk ( as he buys it from across the road mother daily) and they come tail wagging seeing him – the sight is not liked by birds and crows as they have to reluctantly leave their daily feed and take a short fly up to the branches for the dogs to finish their gulp!

I see him talking to the crows and the pigeons in a peculiar gesture which he only can make me understand, though he has tried once but I have not reached the level of understanding. “It gives me peace of mind and I feel I am feeding my family whilst I do so regularly, the day when I don’t come – which is not quite often, they keep a waiting gaze from the park gate – I have myself seen them jumping and howling when they see me appearing unexpectedly, such is the love they shower on me!, I just reciprocate…”

As I start to do my daily jog, I see him smiling and feeding them with love – it is a splendid sight to see and emulate for all of us to love and care of the animals and other beings, they are as important to us as other beings – for they have the same insatiable feelings of being wanted and loved and caressed…as we would like our families to be… being at the top of the food chain does not honour us to ignore them out of our ego and pride…. The day when we would start to see and behave in the lateral sense, nature would start bestowing its goodies on us…unknowingly and unwantedly…for you have passed the test and have qualified its benevolence….start practicing to see the results….